A Fresh Look At Asia Today: History, Art, Culture And Reform Politics On UB’s Asian Studies Agenda This Month

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The work of the Asian Studies Program in the UB College of Arts and Sciences once was planted squarely in the social sciences.

Over the past few years, however, the program quietly has broadened its influence among the arts and letters departments at UB and has helped bring Asian artists, performers, political figures and humanities scholars to Buffalo to discuss and present work on contemporary Asian culture and arts.

"Among them have been visual, media and performing artists from Cambodia, India and other Asian nations," says Thomas Burkman, director of the Asian Studies Program. "We are also continuing our summer grant program to fund faculty for new interdisciplinary efforts related to Asia."

This spring, with second-year funding from a two-year, $160,000 Title VI "Asian Studies and the Arts" grant from the U.S. Department of Education, the program will present even more varied Asian fare and, Burkman says, "we want to invite everyone to the feast.

"Much of the development of Asian studies at the UB in the mid-90s was in the social sciences," he points out. "Faculty appointments in the Asian languages, Japanese literature and Asian art history in the past three years are the cornerstone of this advance.

"As we move into the new millennium, we're very pleased that we will expand the study of Asia's rich cultures into teaching and research in the humanities at UB."

"The arts in Asia are vibrant today in the context of economic development and national pride. The attention of the West is being drawn not just to traditional ancient art forms, but also to cutting-edge theater, dance, filmmaking and sculpture produced in Asia.

"Asian art is no longer geographically delineated by the Asian continent, either," says Burkman. "Asian populations around the world, and especially in North America, are leaving their mark in the world of the arts."

Additional support for the March-April programs will come from the College of Arts and Sciences, Department of History, Baldy Center, the Council on International Studies and Programs and the Graduate Group on Marxist Studies, all at UB. Updates and detailed information on the events sponsored by the Asian Studies Program are available at http://wings@buffalo.edu/asian/.

UB Art Gallery/"Words vs. Meaning: Seven Contemporary Chinese Artists"

A major exhibition, "Words vs. Meaning: Seven Contemporary Chinese Artists," will be held March 31 through April 30 in the UB Art Gallery in the Center for the Arts on the North Campus. It will be curated by gallery director Al Harris and Kuiyi Shen, a former instructor in the Department of Art History.

The exhibition will open on March 31 with a scholarly symposium in the gallery that will be free and open to the public. Titled "The Brush and the Sword: Art and Culture in 20th Century China," it will feature discussions by artists, historians, art historians, artists and specialists in Asian studies, East Asian culture and comparative literature on "Cultural Realities in Contemporary China," "The Multiple Languages of Art in Modern China and its Diaspora" and "Modernity and Revolution in 20th-century Chinese Art."

The conference will be followed by a reception in the gallery for the artists at 7 p.m. Detailed information can be found on the exhibition Web site at http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/cfta/artgal/word_meaning.html.

Art Department/Chinese- and Japanese-American Artists in Residence

Four Asian-American artists will be in residence in the Department of Art on a staggered schedule: painter and installation artist Quing-Min Meng, March 16-17; book and paper artist Nori Jung, March 27-31; installation artist, printmaker and sculptor Xu Bing, March 30-31, and Hirokazu Fukawa, a sculptor, installation and performance artist, April 3-7.

While in residence, each artist will present a lecture, make studio visits, present demonstrations and critiques. They also may visit language classes and participate in the "Asia at Noon" brown-bag lunch discussion series.

For detailed information, go to http://wings.buffalo.edu/asian/asn/ASN5-5/page3.html.

Comparative Literature Conference

The Department of Comparative Literature will present "Matters of Representation: Feminism, Theory and the Arts," an Asian-oriented conference, March 31 to April 1 in 120 Clemens Hall on the North Campus. Principal speakers will be Tina Takemoto of Loyola Marymount University, Akiko Misoguchi of the University of Rochester, Akayo Kano of the University of Pennsylvania and Wendy Chun of Brown University. The conference will explore such topics as art, love and feminism in turn-of-the-century Japan and "orienting orientalism," a discussion of how to map cyberspace. Further information is available on the conference Web site at http://wings.buffalo.edu/AandL/col/conferences/lipstick.html.

Philosophy Department/Conference on Philosophy in Asia

The Department of Philosophy will present a conference on April 9 at which three Asian alumni of the department will present what they consider to be their most important work and explore the significance of philosophy in their respective countries and universities. Speakers will be Zosimo Lee, associate professor at the University of the Philippines; Zhang Xianglong, deputy director of the Institute of Foreign Philosophy at Beijing University, and Lee Seung-Chong, associate professor at Yonsei University, Seoul.

For information, contact Newton Garver at 645-2444, ext. 109.

History Department/Symposium with old China hand William Hinton

A conference on March 23 organized by Roger DesForges, professor of history, will feature presentations and lectures by the internationally recognized China scholar and author William Hinton, described by DesForges as "one of the leading experts on China's agrarian reform movements" and well-known as an old China hand.

Hinton is author of "Fanshen: The Documentary of Revolution in a Small Chinese Village," "The Great Reversal: The Privatization of China" and several other notable books analyzing contemporary political processes in China.

He will present two talks on March 23 that will be open to the public: "The Rise and Fall of Chen Yonggui," from 10 a.m. to 12:40 p.m. in 532 Park Hall on the North Campus, and "Prevailing Academic Views of Socialist China" from 2-3:20 p.m. in 214 Norton Hall on the North Campus.

At 3:30 p.m. in 330 Student Union, Hinton will join a panel of China scholars, moderated by DesForges for a discussion titled "From Cultural Revolution to the Four Modernizations: Great Progress or Great Reversal?" It will examine the social, cultural and economic effects of Deng Xiaoping's radical post-Mao reform programs.

Among the panelists will be Blaine Gaustad, professor of history at State University College at Fredonia; Juh-hau Hong, UB professor of communication; Luo Xu, professor of history at the State University College at Cortland, and Baohui Zhang, professor of history and government at Daemen College.

The panel will be followed at 5:50 p.m. by a public reception in 330 Student Union.

These events coincide with the current Lockwood Library exhibit of large, colorful and very arresting Chinese propaganda posters from Gaustad's collection, which will run through April 30.

In a related note, the American Men's Studies Association will meet this month at the University Inn and Conference Center. Two presentations will address gender consciousness in India and Taiwan respectively. Call Enid Bloch, UB visiting associate professor of classics, for additional information at 645-2191, ext. 117, or at enidbloch@yahoo.com.

Other Asia-related events coming up in the next few weeks include Thai Night on April 2, China Night on April 22, and "Asia at Noon" talks by the visitors cited above and by Sunhyuk Kim, of the University of Southern California Economics Department, "Economic Restructuring and Democratic Consolidation in South Korea," April 14, and librarian Charlie D'Aniello, "Resources on the Web for East Asian and Asian American Studies," April 21.